NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. (Nov. 15) -- The Thiel College Men's Basketball team fell to a physical Albion College squad Saturday afternoon 66-56 on Ron Galbreath Court inside Buzz Ridl Gymnasium to conclude the Buzz Ridl Classic.
The Tomcats fall to 2-2 while the Brittons, who defeated fellow PAC member Westminster 90-60 yesterday, improve to 4-0.
Khamari Accursio-Harris (Jupiter, Fla./Jupiter) canned a turnaround jumper at the 10:17 mark to make it a 1-point game at 43-42. Albion went on to tally 14 unanswered points over the next 4:38 to pull ahead 57-42 with 5:41 remaining. Free throws kept the Tomcats in the contest as an 8-0 run with the first 6 points coming from the stripe and the last 2 on an
Anthony Henderson II (Miramar, Fla./Somerset Academy) layup made it 61-54 with a minute to go. Albion canned a dagger 3-ball on the following possession to thwart Thiel's comeback effort.
Thiel was 15-of-16 from the stripe in the second half and 17-of-18 for the contest. Accursio-Harris was 1-of-3 Tomcats in double figures as he posted 10 points and had a game-best two blocks. Henderson II recorded 13 points to lead Thiel while going 7-of-8 at the free-throw line.
The Tomcats used a 6-0 first-half run to lead 28-27 before
John DiCecco (Indianapolis, Ind./Lebanon) connected on a buzzer-beater 3-ball off an assist from
Logan Lentz (Greenville, Pa./Greenville) to give the Blue and Gold a 31-27 edge at the break.
DiCecco logged 7 points and six boards while Lentz had a game-most-tying two assists and 2 points.
Albion opened the second half with the first 7 to lead 34-31 before Thiel responded with the next 7 to lead 38-34 on a
Mike Brown (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) layup at the under-16 media timeout.
Brown notched 10 points and was 6-of-6 from the stripe. He swiped a career-high-tying and contest-best three steals.
Das Sanders (Dallas, Texas/Fort Worth Christian) led Thiel with seven boards, five of which came on the offensive glass.
Kenny Ermat (Lauderdale Lakes, Fla./Boyd Anderson) grabbed five rebounds and pitched in 8 points in reserve.
Thiel shot 51.9 percent in the first half (14-of-27) to just 19.2 percent (5-of-26) in the final 20 minutes. The Tomcats were 1-of-14 from beyond the arc for the contest.
The Blue and Gold are back in action next Wednesday for a road non-conference clash against Penn State Behrend at 7 p.m.
